Has Ireland given up the ghost? It seems the country's negotiating skills in Europe aren't so hot after all, as the finance minister declares in parliament that a potential 1% interest rate reduction in the EU element of the bailout wasn't really worth it.

Michael Noonan told the Dáil that estimates the interest rate reduction could save some €450m a year were "exaggerated" and it would be worth just €148m to €200m a year.

He said the amount of money was so small it wasn't worth fighting over, especially as it put the country under political pressure to increase its controversially low 12.5% corporate tax rate.

"Those that are trying to force us to change our corporation tax rate, I can tell them once more today they have no negotiating position because the amounts of money are so small, in relation to the adjustments we require to make, that we're not going to hang out, we're not going to concede," he said.

"I will not be waltzed around by any state, " he added.

Noonan, who came across as a wily old fox in the pre-election campaign, is also sticking to the rigid party political line that Ireland will not need a second bailout in 2013 despite widespread opinion from international financiers, economists and former IMF staff that the country will need second-stage financing in mid-2013. Last week I reported a senior RBS banker's analysis: Harvinder Sian said Ireland would have to be a "fantastic" bet for the markets to lend at any reasonable interest rate – And that, he thought, would take seven years to achieve.

I'm not sure what Noonan's game is, but judging by his remarks in the Dáil yesterday, it's all about keeping the electorate in the dark.

Noonan: we don't want to frighten the children

Challenged by Sinn Féin's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty on the question of a second bailout, Noonan said: "If you want to scaremonger your children and talk about the bogeyman coming down the chimney in two years' time, go right ahead and do it.

"You've a simple decision to be made. You can put your strength at the end of the rope and pull with us or you can stay with the knockers."

So that's it, Michael: it's all about not scaring the children, or for that matter the adults.

After seven or eight months of daily financial and economic analysis oozing out of every media pore in the land, the public are well versed on bailouts, interest rates, GDP, inflation and EU politics.

To my mind, there is no point in pretending there's no "bogeyman coming down the chimney" when he's already in your sitting room in the form of bad news.

Last week it was unemployment figures still rising; yesterday it was Central Statistic Office figures showing house prices still falling. House prices in Dublin are down 46% on peak; apartment prices down 53% – and with a weak job market, and precious little finance in the market, there is no sign of it bottoming out.

Even the summer weather – six weeks of cold and counting – looks like a bad gift from the IMF/EU fund.

A bit of leadership and hope is what the country needs, not protection from the truth.